Exploring The Growth Of Women's Rugby League In Aotearoa
The emergence of the NRL Women's competition has popped the top off of women's rugby league in Aotearoa as an abundance of Kiwi Ferns and #KiwiNRL wahine took up opportunities with Australian clubs, as well as those with Aotearoa Warriors. With seven wahine from Aotearoa in the undefeated Brisbane Broncos team that won the inaugural Premiership, there is immense reason to be optimistic about the future of women's rugby league in and from Aotearoa.
I attack this from the perspective of the #KiwiNRL takeover, in which ever since I started writing about rugby league for the Niche Cache I have put it out into the universe that there will only be more and more lads from Aotearoa in the NRL. Pakeha, Samoan or Chinese, it doesn't matter, all that really matters is that they go from Aotearoa to an Australian NRL club and contribute in the #KiwiNRL.
We are now well down that path, which is becoming evident in different ways; whether it's simply the numbers of #KiwiNRL players or the young wave of Kiwis that we are seeing. There is a long way to go and I'm all in on believing that there are many more levels to the #KiwiNRL takeover, which flows into the women's side of things where we have now witnessed the first ever NRLW competition and it that, every team had at least one wahine from Aotearoa.
Going from a domestic competition leading into Kiwi Ferns and then adding the NRLW step between domestic rugby league and Kiwi Ferns footy has been fantastic. Prior to the NRLW starting, a few players had already moved to Australia to pursue footy or, perhaps more realistic; pursue work opportunities that benefit their footy.
The first ever Women's State of Origin earlier this year featured Maitua Feterika and Rona Peters for Queensland and Nita Maynard for New South Wales. I won't go hundies into how Feterika played Origin and then slid back into Kiwi Ferns duties, this was merely a product of it being the first Women's Origin and those nuances not being sussed out yet. Point being that someone like Feterika had moved to Australia to play in the Queensland competition where greater opportunities were to be enjoyed.
Australia is so far ahead of Aotearoa in terms of professional sport, it's not funny and anyone celebrating moves forward for women's sport in Aotearoa should be more aware of what is possible. Even if the state-based competitions aren't professional, they present opportunities to be closer to professional footy and the situation that we have now, offers all sorts of pathways for ladies from Aotearoa as they can play domestic footy in Aotearoa, play state footy in Australia, play NRLW and Kiwi Ferns.
Peters and Maynard on the other hand, present another avenue. They have been based in Australia for a longer period, Maynard had previously played rugby for Australia as well as Sevens, having moved to Australia from Gisborne earlier in the decade. Add Raecene McGregor into the mix as she was born in Australia to kiwi parents and thanks to NZRL sussing out better pathways, McGregor and Maynard had the door opened to them for Kiwi Ferns footy.
The more players in and around the various avenues for women's rugby league in Australia, the better. There are only so many spots in the NRLW that the Warriors can offer and for many, the opportunity to live in Australia and get outside the comfort zone is beneficial. Especially with the number of wahine who are operating at an NRLW level; on top of the full Warriors squad, 10 wahine played for Australian clubs.
With those playing numbers, we should steer clear of judging kiwi rugby league based on what the Warriors are doing. That's exactly the same case with the men and while a strong Warriors team is great for kiwi rugby league in both instances, kiwi women's rugby league should also be judged on how many players take up opportunities in Australia.
We are still early in this process, which means that there is still a focus on Auckland talent. Maynard is from Gisborne but essentially grew up as a baller in Australia), Honey Hireme is from Waikato but came through the Black Ferns system and Masuisuimatamaalii Tauaua-Pauaraisa is from Canterbury. These three were the only non-Aucklanders in the Kiwi Ferns squad that played a few weeks ago, along with McGregor who is from Australia.
Tauaua-Pauaraisa was alone in being from Canterbury for the Warriors, although fellow Cantabrians Charntay Poko and Corina Whiley were in the wider mix for the Warriors. This points to a major area of growth, mirroring what we have seen with men as the rugby league pathway tentacles spread themselves throughout Aotearoa; there are more NRL players from outside of Auckland than ever.
Take the National Women's Tournament this year for example, where three Auckland teams made the semi-finals and the other team was Canterbury. Counties Manukau Stingrays and Akarana Falcons made the final, won by Counties and Canterbury defeated Auckland Vulcans in the 3rd/4th playoff. There were only two other teams competing with Wellington Orcas and Wai-Coa-Bay rounding off the six team competition; half the competition were Auckland teams.
Also, Canterbury were the only team from the South Island. Take a dose of context around the current position of women's rugby league in Aotearoa and this can only be viewed as a positive as it's a clear avenue for growth. We've taken a massive leap in progress with NRLW and women's footy in general this year, yet you don't need to be a genius to see how the next few levels can be reached.
In Aotearoa, it goes without saying that rugby gets all the coverage outside of the Niche Cache. You only need to look at the coverage that the women's Sevens team and the Black Ferns get, compared to any angle of women's rugby league (NRLW, Kiwi Ferns, Warriors) to see this. That's all good and I'd expect nothing less from the mainstream media, although we have seen a wee shift of former Black Ferns moving across to league.
Most kids grow up playing both codes, whether seriously or casually so the women will be equally as capable of code-hopping as the men. This makes it difficult to suss out all the wahine who have rugby union backgrounds, however someone like Hireme has made the most of her move from union to league and then we have Onjeurlina Leiataua who went straight from Papatoetoe High School into the Black Ferns back in 2012.
Now Leiataua is playing in the first ever NRLW competition for the Warriors. Even Tauasa-Pauaraisa is only in her third year of league, having previously played union for Canterbury and Sevens for Samoa. Then we have Lavinia Gould, who played for Brisbane Broncos in NRLW and has previously played for Black Ferns, Sevens and then Queensland Reds after moving to Australia a year ago for work. Gould stated that pushing women's sport forward through NRLW was a key factor in taking up the opportunity to play NRLW for the Broncos.
I won't go crazy and suggest that there will be a steady flow of union players in Aotearoa moving to league to take up professional NRLW opportunities, yet we've already seen numerous examples of players making the switch (directly or not directly related to NRLW) and as women's rugby league grows in Aotearoa, this will only increase.
Everything's going to increase and the only way is up for women's rugby league in Aotearoa. It's a beautiful time as we in a period of growth, after the seeds had been planted and cared for over a long time by hearty women's rugby league players and administrators in Aotearoa. Now those seeds are growing, flourishing with greater opportunities and I'm eager to explore this idea in a year's time to see where we are at after the second NRLW competition, along with how the influence of NRLW filters through to domestic footy in Aotearoa.
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Peace and love 27.